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Queens Zoo News

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In the high plains of Denver, Colorado—where the buffalo once roamed—more than 150 experts gathered to discuss the ecological future of our continent’s largest land mammal. The three-day American bison conference, sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), attracted an array of interests, from bison ranchers to conservation biologists to indigenous groups. World Wildlife Fund U.S. and The Nature Conservancy co-sponsored the conference.

Though the iconic giant once rumbled across the Great Plains in the tens of millions, by the turn of the 20th century, commercial hunting and habitat loss had pushed the bison to the brink of extinction. The Wildlife Conservation Society helped repopulate the West’s depleted herds, and secured rangeland for the species, but many obstacles have prevented wild bison from flourishing.

“Bison are at a crossroads,” said Dr. Steven Sanderson, president and CEO of WCS.  “Last century, through our efforts and the efforts of others, the bison was saved from extinction. We are now looking forward one hundred years, because we believe there is an ecological future for wild bison in the North American landscape.”

Of the estimated 400,000 bison in the United States, 20,000 are considered wild; the rest live on private ranches. According to the conference organizers, ecological restoration of North American bison would occur when large herds of plains and wood bison can move freely across extensive landscapes within all major habitats of their historic ranges. For this mission to be truly successful, bison would need to interact with the fullest possible set of other native species—including the ferrets, prairie dogs, and various birds, all of which once depended on bison herds as part of their biology.

Ecological restoration will likely take a century, says WCS, and will be realized only through collaboration with a broad range of public, private, and indigenous partners.

“An ecological future for bison is not the domain of one organization, or one state, or even one country,” said Dr. Kent Redford, director of the WCS Institute and one of the conference’s key organizers. “It will involve a long-term commitment of partners large and small, ranging from private ranchers to state and federal agencies.”

In 1905, the American Bison Society (ABS) was founded at WCS’s Bronx Zoo headquarters. Its efforts to re-stock reserves on the Great Plains with animals from the zoo’s herd and other sources were considered a resounding success, and by 1936, ABS had held its last meeting. Today, ABS has been reformed as a WCS program, charged with bringing back the bison’s ecological role, as well as its cultural role to inspire, sustain, and connect different peoples.

“In the 20th century, we saved the bison from extinction,” said Dr. Sanderson. “We are hopeful that by the end of this conference, we will have a consensus to look toward a second century of conservation of this great North American icon.”